Najmul Hossain Shanto’s time as Bangladesh’s Test captain has come to an end. After the loss in the Colombo Test, he himself announced that he would no longer lead the team in this format.
Rumors had already been swirling about his future after he was removed from the ODI captaincy. And now, it’s official—Shanto doesn’t want to continue as Test captain following the Sri Lanka series.
Today, he made his decision public. Back in February last year, Shanto was given the responsibility of captaining Bangladesh in all three formats. With today’s announcement, he’s now stepping away from leadership in every one of them.
Naturally, the question arises—how did Bangladesh fare under Najmul’s captaincy?
Even before being officially named Test captain in February last year, Shanto had already led Bangladesh in red-ball cricket. Toward the end of 2023, he captained the side during the two-Test series against New Zealand.
In total, the left-handed batter captained Bangladesh in 14 Test matches. Under his leadership, the team won 4 matches, lost 9, and drew just 1—the first Test of the Sri Lanka series in Galle.
During this time, Bangladesh secured Test wins over notable teams like Pakistan and New Zealand. In fact, in his debut Test as captain, Bangladesh defeated New Zealand.
They went on to register a memorable 2–0 series win against Pakistan in Rawalpindi last year. The fourth win came more recently, against Zimbabwe.
Of the 14 players who have captained Bangladesh in Tests (both full-time and interim), only seven have led in at least 10 matches:
- Mushfiqur Rahim (34)
- Shakib Al Hasan (19)
- Habibul Bashar (18)
- Mominul Haque (17)
- Najmul Hossain Shanto (14)
- Mohammad Ashraful (13)
- Khaled Mashud (12)
Among them, Shanto holds the highest win percentage—28.57%.
And how did he perform personally as captain?
As a batter, Shanto did better with the armband than without it. His overall career average stands at 32.19, but as captain, it rose to 36.24.
Out of his 7 Test centuries, 3 came during his time as captain—including two in the Galle Test against Sri Lanka. In total, Shanto scored 906 runs in Tests as skipper.
In ODIs, Shanto captained Bangladesh in 13 matches, winning 4. But with the bat, he shone brightly—averaging 51.27 and scoring 564 runs during his captaincy stint.
In T20Is, he led the side in 24 matches, securing 10 wins. However, his batting form didn’t reflect the same consistency. In 22 innings as captain, he managed just one half-century and scored 394 runs at an average of 18.76.
